What Are the Main Factors Affecting App Store Ranking

People who own iPad and iPhone go to App Store, looking through top grossing apps, featured apps, open up the search box and enter different words relating to the apps they intend to discover. Then, your iOS app may be found in the App Store if it is ranked well. However, you should know that only your app has a good ranking, can it be found. Before knowing how to get a higher ranking, you need to read this guide to learn the main factors affecting App Store ranking.

You need understand that to get higher rankings, there are ASO factors you need to put in check. These app store optimization factors will determine your app ranking, and it is easy for people to discover on App Store. Below are 8 main factors you need to consider when working on your ASO.

1. Keywords Relevance

How well your keywords tally with what people are looking for determines how much ranking you get. Using keywords that are extremely popular will make you have a lot of apps to compete with, which will affect your ranking in turn. You need to make some research on relevant keywords you can use. You must also check and modify your keywords regularly, this will enable your app to get better visibility.

Your main keywords must be included in the full name of your app, your app keyword, app description as well. You can also make use of the store’s search autocomplete option to help you recognize popular keyword combinations that might have been missed by others.

2. App Downloads & Engagement

This is another vital factor that affects how well your app ranks in its store. The more downloads you get, the better your chances of staying on top. Having a lot of downloads (also known as download spikes), probably as a result of some publicizing you have been doing, will get you up to the top in a short period of time.

3. Reviews& Ratings

This is one popular ASO factor that affects how much your app ranks in the app store. Getting real, positive reviews and high ratings for your app are going to keep you on top of your competitors. Therefore, in order for you to get a higher ranking above you competitors, you need to get your app real positive reviews.

4. Social Proof & Backlinks

Things like Facebook and Twitter referrals, and Google+ +1’s are purportedly tracked by Google as factors that affect the ranking of your apps, as well as backlinks in general. This would make sense since they have gained a lot of experience, doing this over the years.

It is believed that Apple doesn’t do this, although a little dive into their App Analytics will let you know that they are very aware of where your traffic comes from, therefore making them capable of tracking your backlinks and social proofs.

5. Recently Updated Apps

Updating your app on the App Store will give you a short-term elevation. If your app is in the App Store, it is probably a bad idea for you to go on early release. You don’t need to sacrifice the quality of your app simply because you want to meet arbitrary deadlines. Make sure your update comes with improvements that will generate a lot of thumbs up from your users, which will generate positive reviews for you in turn.

6. App Starts

Since 2013, Apple has regarded app starts as one of the factors affecting App Store ranking. Because if your app has numerous downloads but low retention and active users, your app ranking will not be improved. App stars show that the frequency of users use your app and plays an important role to increase app retention and engagement. While, to achieve this goal, you have to guarantee the quality of your app so that improve the app starts.

7. Revenue

This factor just suitable the paid apps. More revenues implicate your app trusted by more people who would like to buy your in-app services. If you want to climb to the #1 on paid apps discovery lists, you have to spare your efforts on app revenue. Of course, you still should pay attention to your app quality at first. Also, the ranking and revenue of your app are complementary to each other. It means the higher ranking your app gets, the more revenues you will gain.

8. Country

On App Store, one particular region or country plays an essential part in factors affecting App Store ranking. Some special countries have better value than other countries. For example, the US has the greatest value in that territory, you can popularize your app in the US especially. You can get a boosting ranking in this region in a short time. But there is one point you should clarify which country is valued for you to promote your app.

Conclusion

There are a lot of other factors affecting App Store ranking, but keeping all of these in mind is surely improve your app store optimization and to take your products to where users are going to see them.